Israel's governing coalition was placed under severe strain yesterday when the cabinet split along left-right lines over a plan to dismantle 15 Jewish settler outposts on the Palestinian West Bank and in Gaza.

The defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said on Monday that the removal of the outposts would be achieved by force if necessary. He added yesterday that he had told the Israeli army to ensure this was carried out by next week.

The move was partly intended to smooth the way for a meeting scheduled at the White House last night between the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and President George Bush, who is seeking a freeze on Jewish settlements. But the announcement backfired spectacularly, provoking a squabble between the Labour and Likud cabinet members.

In a further embarrassment, Mr Sharon stepped in yesterday to disown Mr Ben-Eliezer's plan. An aide travelling with the prime minister and authorised to speak on his behalf described the announcement as "superfluous". He said that a decision on the settlements should be left to a later stage of the peace process.

During a visit to the Shiloh settlement on the West Bank yesterday, the security minister, Uzi Landau, insisted that Mr Ben-Eliezer, a Labour party member, was not authorised to make the statement, and said he would challenge him at the next cabinet meeting.

Settlers' leaders joined in the criticism of Mr Ben-Eliezer. Yehudit Tayar said the settlers would resist the dismantling of the outposts.

The Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza, illegal under international law, are one of the main causes of friction between Israel and the Palestinians. The outposts, which the Israeli army has said it cannot adequately protect, often expand from a tent and caravan on top of a hill into substantial settlements.

The White House meeting is Mr Sharon's second. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has still to receive an invitation.

The issue of the settlements was high on the agenda. Mr Bush, pushing for various concessions from Israel, wants Mr Sharon to impose a freeze on the settlements.

He also wants him to drop his insistence that there must be an end to all violence before Israel will enter the next stage of the peace process. As an alternative, Mr Bush wants Mr Sharon to accept that Mr Arafat has succeeded in reducing violence.

The shaky ceasefire, negotiated by the CIA director, George Tenet, has been violated repeatedly since it came into force two weeks ago.

Violence continued throughout the West Bank yesterday. Israel, retaliating for Palestinian gunfire, added Hebron to the long list of Palestinian areas it has sealed off from the outside world.

Despite his reputation for aggression, Mr Sharon has won diplomatic support over the last month for holding back from retaliation so far for the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in which 21 died.

A White House spokesman, Art Fleischer, said: "The president is pleased with the restraint that Israel has shown in the face of recent events. He's going to urge continued restraint."

Speaking before his meeting with Mr Bush, Mr Sharon insisted that he would not back down on the ceasefire, insisting that there had to be a "total cessation of violence". He said the current ceasefire was not working.

He described Mr Arafat as "the head of a terrorist gang". Although the prime minister has used such language before, he is expected to denounce the Palestinian leader in such terms more often.

In response, the Palestinian authority described Mr Sharon as the terrorist. The Palestinian cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, pressed for a faster move towards negotiations on a political settlement. "If the political and the security talks do not go together, I think we will witness a fast deterioration in the security plan made up by George Tenet," he said.

A Palestinian authority document, setting out its position ahead of the Middle East visit later this week by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, expressed scepticism about whether Israel will freeze the settlements. It says: "Israel has become very creative in designing loopholes to justify ongoing settlement activity."